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Comparative Study
. 2017 Sep 11;15(1):20.
doi: 10.1186/s12947-017-0112-9.

Myocardial performance index in female athletes

Zahraa Alsafi  1 , Andreas Malmgren  2 , Petri Gudmundsson  3 , Martin Stagmo  4 , Magnus Dencker  2
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Myocardial performance index in female athletes

Zahraa Alsafi et al. Cardiovasc Ultrasound. .

Abstract

Background: Long-term intensive training leads to morphological and mechanical changes in the heart generally known as "athlete's heart". Previous studies have suggested that the diastolic and systolic function of the ventricles is unaltered in athletes compared to sedentary. The purpose of this study was to investigate myocardial performance index (MPI) by pulsed wave Doppler (PWD) and by tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) in female elite athletes compared to sedentary controls.

Methods: The study consisted of 32 athletes (mean age 20 ± 2 years) and 34 sedentary controls (mean age 23 ± 2 years). MPI by PWD and TDI were measured in the left (LV) and right ventricle (RV) in both groups. Moreover, comparisons of MPI by the two methods and between the LV and RV within the two groups were made.

Results: There were no significant differences in MPI between athletes and controls (p > 0.05), whereas the LV had significantly higher MPI compared to RV (p < 0.001, in athletes and controls). The agreement and the correlation between the two methods measuring MPI showed low agreement and no correlation (athletes RV r = -0.027, LV r = 0.12; controls RV r = 0.20, LV r = 0.30).

Conclusion: The global function of the LV and RV measured by MPI with PWD and TDI is similar in female athletes compared to sedentary controls. Conversely, both MPI by PWD and by TDI shows a significant difference between the LV and RV. However, the agreement and correlation between conventional methods of measuring MPI by PWD compared to MPI by TDI is very poor in both these populations.

Keywords: Athlete’s heart; Diastolic function; Echocardiography; Left ventricle; Myocardial performance index; Right ventricle; Systolic function.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by the Regional Ethical Review Board, Lund, Sweden. All participants gave their written informed agreement to take part in the study. Reference number 2012/77.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Myocardial performance index measured by tissue Doppler imaging. Time intervals by tissue Doppler imaging derived from septal annulus. tICT, tissue isovolumic contraction time; tIRT, tissue isovolumic relaxation time; a = isovolumic contraction time + isovolumic relaxation time + ejection time; b = ejection time. MPI = (a-b)/b
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Bland-Altman plot for conventional myocardial performance index (MPI) and myocardial performance index by tissue Doppler. Bland-Altman plot for conventional myocardial performance index (MPI) by pulsed wave Doppler and myocardial performance index by tissue Doppler TDMPI of right ventricle (upper left) and left ventricle (lower left) in the athletes group and the right ventricle (upper right) and left ventricle (lower left) in the sedentary group. The mean value of the two methods is displayed on the x-axis and the difference between the methods is displayed on the y-axis. The two dotted lines represent a 95% confidence interval and the solid line represents the mean difference between the measurements
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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